STAMFORD -- When Mayor Dannel Malloy was asked Tuesday night whether the defeat of Democratic mayoral candidate David Martin, the Board of Representatives president during much of his tenure, was a referendum on his 14 years at the city's head, he rejected the notion.

"I had four referendums -- they're called elections. Stamford hasn't elected a back-to-back party mayor since 1957," he said.

Roy Occhiogrosso, a spokesman for Malloy's exploratory committee, echoed that sentiment Wednesday, saying Malloy was not involved in the mayoral race. He said there was no precedent for a race in which a candidate was not running that hurt his or her chances in another campaign.

"I think it is a notion put forward by Dan's potential opponents, and by others in the political establishment, who genuinely view him as the Democrats' best candidate and who are looking for any argument they can find to try to take him down," Occhiogrosso said.

Those "others" may include Board of Finance member Joseph Tarzia, who pointed to Republican Michael Pavia's win by almost 500 votes in Shippan, Malloy's neighborhood, as evidence that the race was a rejection of Malloy. He pointed to attempts by Pavia's campaign to link Martin to Malloy.

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"If I were the mayor, I wouldn't feel too comfortable seeing that vote," he said.

Gary Rose, a professor of politics at Sacred Heart University, said since Martin was not Malloy's hand-picked successor and Malloy did not actively campaign for him, Malloy can distance himself a bit from the loss.

Martin's loss is probably more attributable to the fact that Martin was on the Board of Representatives for 26 years and its president for eight, while Pavia did not hold elected office, Rose said.

"Even though David Martin was not an incumbent, he was associated with the incumbent party," Rose said. "We do know that, if we look at Virginia, New Jersey and a number of towns, the voters are rejecting the incumbent party," he said.

That's true regardless of which party was in charge before Tuesday's election, he said.

"In this recession, and with jobs the way they are and a range of other issues like home foreclosures, they see a party that's been in power and they're reacting to it," he said.

Even if Martin's loss reflects badly on Malloy today, it's not likely to leave a black mark on his gubernatorial bid in 2010, said Donald Greenberg, chair of the politics department at Fairfield University.

"Voters have very short memories," he said. "Does it help Malloy? No. Does it really hurt him? Probably not too deeply," he said.

Both said a loss for Malloy would have been worse, perhaps validating his decision not to run.

Even if the voters were ready for Malloy to move on, statewide races are very different.

"I did a lot of campaigns in Stamford," said George Jepsen, former state representative from Stamford and former head of the Connecticut Democratic Party. "Local races tend to have very personal dynamics that are based on the personalities and the individual candidates."

That could be especially true because Stamford's voter turnout Tuesday was 39 percent, he said.

"It's very different from the demographics of a statewide turnout, which in a gubernatorial year can be 60 percent," Jepsen said.

Malloy still has statewide recognition after his 2006 bid, and in some circles is seen as the Democratic frontrunner, Rose said.

"He made a good name for himself when he ran last time," Rose said. "Many people I know have said that he deserves a second look after that."

Staff Writer Monica Potts can be reached at monica.potts@scni.com or 203-964-2266.